Lauren Boebert faced her first major political test in her new congressional district. Here’s how it went.

FORT LUPTON — Lauren Boebert faced her first major political test in her new congressional district Thursday night when she appeared at a debate with her long list of Republican primary opponents and spent much of the evening fending off attacks. 

In a particularly pointed moment, state Rep. Mike Lynch of Wellington asked the congresswoman to provide the definition of the word carpetbagger. 

“The crops may be different in Colorado’s 4th District,” Boebert, who recently moved her family and her political fortunes to the 4th Congressional District, said in front of a packed crowd at the Fort Lupton Recreation Center, “but the values are not.”

Boebert was one of nine candidates who participated in the debate, hosted by the Republican Women of Weld. The 4th District, currently represented by retiring U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, is the most favorable congressional district to Republicans in Colorado, meaning whoever wins in the GOP primary is likely a shoo-in in November. 

That’s why Boebert switched her reelection bid to the 4th District, in the eastern half of the state, from the 3rd Congressional District, which is mostly on the western half of the state. 

“I’m here to earn your support — earn your vote,” Boebert said in her opening remarks during the debate. “This is not a coronation.”

And a coronation it was not on Thursday. 

Boebert faced direct and indirect questions and attacks from the start of the debate. State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a rancher in far northeast Colorado, pointed out in his opening remarks that he was a lifelong resident of the district, which spans across the Eastern Plains into Loveland and Douglas County. 

“This district needs somebody who understands those issues and has grown up with those issues,” Sonnenberg said. 

Conservative talk radio host Deborah Flora asked Boebert how she could square criticizing a Democratic opponent in the last election cycle for living in one district and running in another and then do just that.

“My boys and I needed a fresh start,” said Boebert, who recently signed a lease in Weld County. “That’s been very public of what home life looks like. And I’m sorry to bring that up. I tried to put it into a very pretty package and bring my ex-husband lots of honor. But since there is nothing private about my personal life, it is out there and my boys need some freedom from what has been going on.”

Boebert, who arrived at the debate holding her grandson, appeared to be referencing the recent arrest of her ex-husband in alleged domestic violence incidents in Garfield County involving her and her children. 

The arrest happened, however, weeks after she announced her switch to the 4th District — a move that also was politically motivated and beneficial for her. She won in the 3rd District by less than 600 votes in 2022, the closest congressional contest in the nation.

In trying to stand out from her opponents during the debate, Boebert highlighted her work in Congress. 

“Everyone (on stage) will talk like a Freedom Caucus member, but there is only one who governs as a Freedom Caucus member,” she said. 

Boebert also voiced support for Donald Trump and falsely claimed that he won the 2020 presidential election.

“I’ll be voting for President Trump,” she said when asked who she would vote for this year in the Republican presidential primary, “his third victory as president.”

Boebert wasn’t on the defensive all night. She attacked Lynch for being unable to possess a gun because of a conviction in a 2022 drunken driving arrest. That dig prompted Lynch to ask the carpetbagger question.

But Lynch wasn’t the only candidate who’s been in trouble with the law. Six of the nine, including Boebert, raised their hands when asked who had been arrested in the past, drawing laughter from the candidates and the crowd.

Boebert wasn’t the fan favorite in a straw poll that followed the debate. She came in fifth among the participants, behind Sonnenberg, Lynch, Flora and state Rep. Richard Holtorf, in that order.  

Colorado’s congressional primaries will be on June 25.